Debating “Ley De Costas” Law

Since 2004, the Spanish population has been heavily criticizing those policies, which the former Environment Minister – Cristina Narbona made, regarding “Ley De Costas”. It has been over 5 years and a situation of unrest pertaining to the then approved law, can be observed.

The law says that the entire Spanish coastline, over a distance of 100 meters from the waterline, is government property. It means that any person or party, who had a home or building within the 100 meters of the “Ley De Costas” waterline, is only viable to be the owner of the property for 60 years. After the expiration of the 60 years time period, the government will demolish the property and the occupants will have to move elsewhere.

The Spanish coastline runs for 8,000 Km and a lot of tenants are upset over the “Ley De Costas” crisis. Apparently, property owners at the coastline are not allowed to sell their property, this puts them in a tight situation.

Right now, a debate is under discussion, in the Congress where the Canary Island Coalition and the Catalan party – CiU have joined hands to pass a vote. This vote is intended to prevent those “Ley De Costas” demolitions from initiating. The amendment placed by the CiU wants to see the law re-written in the next 3 months.

With so much going on, environmental protection agencies are in favor of the demolition law, because the coastline environment is prone to pollution and severe damage. Ecologists are saying that the beach and the coastline were always considered to be government property by default – it goes back to the times of King Alfonso X “The Wise”.